Site News: Say Goodbye to Sirki

Greetings, Friends and Fiends!

Ye Old Dragon here with a slight update.

Last year was just too much.

We lost so many names important to the Realms of Imagination. It started in January with David Bowie & Alan Rickman and didn’t let up all year long. Some time back, I tweeted that I started to wonder if Prince Sirki was an appropriate “mascot” for my announcements of passings and anniversaries of same. There were just too many, coming seemingly non-stop at times, and you can only try to lighten the atmosphere just so much, for just so long.

I’ve been using Prince Sirki – the Earthly guise of the Grim Reaper, as played by Frederick March in DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY (1934) – in the hopes of lightening the mood, as well as paying tribute to the late great Forrest J. Ackerman. He often used the Prince as HIS messenger, by saying that Prince Sirki had summoned someone (they’d passed away), as a headline in his legendary magazine, FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND. I’ve used him since I started The Draconic Verses almost six years ago.

That time has come to an end, I’m thinking.

It’s not easy retiring such a long established feature, but when something raises a question of whether or not it’s respectful, then maybe it’s time for a change.

Therefore, effective immediately, I’ve retired Prince Sirki. From now on, “Sirki’s Summons” will be titled “The Dragon Remembers…” I’ll be leaving the old title card on the older posts, as well as his ‘page’, because I think the Prince has earned that recognition. If he doesn’t like it? We’ll discuss it when he tries to ‘Summon’ Ye Olde Dragon, won’t we.